After shattering the backboard glass with a ferocious dunk, Barcelona big man Ante Tomic admitted he was shocked to discover what he had done.
The freak incident occurred towards the end of the first half of the game against Crvena Zvezda, when Tomic received a behind-the-back pass from Pau Ribas and slammed down a fierce one-handed dunk which left the glass completely smashed.
And Tomic said that initially he didn’t even realize the glass was broken: “It wasn’t my intention – it just happened. I don’t know how. It was a great pass from Pau, and I did a normal dunk. I felt some glass on my hand and at first, I didn’t know what had happened, but then I looked up and realized it was broken.
“It felt weird…it’s something that’s never happened to me before, so I didn’t know how to react. I guess the rim and the board were old, their time was up! But I don’t know what happened, I haven’t seen the video replay yet so I really have no idea. It was completely broken, I did a good job on the glass. Everyone is very surprised like I am.”
Tomic Smash… pic.twitter.com/M1ODCuSc9g
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) March 9, 2018
His teammate Kevin Seraphin – who has thrown down plenty of highlight reel dunks this season – was highly impressed.
“It was a really crazy play,” Seraphin said. “I was so surprised, and honestly it’s something I’ve been trying to do but I’ve never managed it. The rims are too solid now. Back in the day, they used to break like nothing, but now it’s too hard. So I was like, ‘Ahh, he stole my dream’ When they were putting in the new basket I said that to Ante: ‘That was my dream and you stole it’. It was crazy.”
Source: EuroLeague
